


Scaffolding

by Lanerose



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:10:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanerose/pseuds/Lanerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After his surgery, Kiyoshi returns to a Seirin basketball practice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scaffolding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



            “You’d better not be planning to join practice, Kiyoshi-kun,” was the first thing that Aida said when she spotted him hobbling into the gym on his crutches.  Beside her, a girl with shoulder length brown hair clutched a clipboard to her (ample) chest as she ran an evaluating stare over him.  The rest of the team, which had been engaged in a practice match, came to halt and turned to the door mostly as one, except for Kuroko, who took advantage of the distraction to throw up an alley-oop that Kagami jammed home.

            “Nah,” Teppei replied, “who’d want to play with this bunch of losers?”

            He’d probably have said more, but whatever it would have been got forgotten in the struggle to keep his balance as he got mobbed by the others.  When the rush had passed, a fist landed definitively on his head.

            “I don’t want to hear that from the loser who has to hobble in here on crutches, idiot,” Hyuuga said and, under the disguise of a headlock, dragged him over to the bleachers and forced him to sit down.

            Teppei settled onto the bleacher, gingerly positioning his leg in front of him as Aida subtly bumped the others into a not-so-tightly-knit circle around him.  With the ball dead, Kagami - and yes, there was Kuroko - joined the crowd.  Number Two slipped slowly through them and settled at Teppei’s side, giving him an opportunity to pet their mascot.

            “Who was winning just now?” Teppei asked, jerking his head toward the court.

            “Second-years by ten,” Izuki said.  “Apparently, the second-years aren’t second-rate.”

            Teppei laughed as Hyuuga whacked the back of his head.

            “They’d better not be,” Hyuuga replied.  “As a senior, I hate to admit it, but the best competition we had this year will still be playing against them next year.”

            “Our competition may not agree with you,” Furihata-kun added.

            An unfamiliar face was tapping Kagami on the shoulder.  Kagami, who brushed the hand away gently before barking out, “What, Ibu-kun?”

            “Kagami-senpai, who is that?”  The young man - apparently Ibu-kun - asked, staring pointedly at Teppei. 

            “Idiot,” replied another new face, “don’t you recognize Kiyoshi Teppei?  He played for Seirin last year but had to withdraw from the basketball club after they won the Winter Cup because of his knee injury.”

            “Well how am I supposed to know that, Kamio?”  Ibu muttered, his eyebrows twitching in irritation.  “It’s not like he’s been playing while we’ve been here if he’s been out. I bet he was hiding from me deliberately, you were trying to keep him a secret from me because you're jealous -“

“Who would be jealous of an idiot like you?" Kamio protested.

“- and it's not like being able to shoot a lay-up is anything special, three-pointers are inherently superior, that's why you get an extra point for them. Kamio-kun can't shoot three-pointers -" 

            “All right, that’s enough, break it up!”  Kagami said as Kuroko pushed him forward. He stepped between the two of them just as Kamio stepped up to get into Ibu’s face.  At Kuroko's nod, Furihata-kun and Kawahara-kun had taken up strategic positions behind Kamio and Shinji, respectively, while a veritable sea of unfamiliar faces watched curiously around them.

            “Those two do have a way of making people focus on their arguments to the exclusion of more important things,” said a soft voice to Kiyoshi’s right, and he was smiling already as he turned to meet Kuroko’s slightly mischievous expression.

            Aida smiled as well.  “They do at that.”

            Teppei watched them.  For a moment, time stuttered, and he stood in Ibu’s shoes (notably lacking a constant running commentary), staring at a shorter boy with glasses and ignoring a certain level of shouting in light of the common dream in their hearts.  He blinked, and time resumed its usual flow, with Kamio being held back by a player who most certainly was not Izuki Shun from attacking a (still continuously speaking sotto voce) Ibu.  To his left, Hyuuga was adjusting his glasses.

            “So,” Teppei said lightly, smiling at Hyuuga, “what’s this I hear about second place at the Winter Cup?”

            “We missed you, too, bastard,” Hyuuga said, slapping him not-quite-gently on the back of the head.  Aida hid her face behind her clipboard.

            “That asshole got stronger again.”  Kagami was glaring at the basketball in his hands as if that was a personal offense.  He looked up, suddenly, glanced at Kuroko, and added, “And Touou still has Momoi-san, as well.  We warned the first-years not to talk to her, but she’s got some kind of tricks up her sleeves.”

            Kuroko smiled, nodding in agreement.  A glance around the circle crowding closer to Teppei now showed Mitobe and Koganei nodding as well. 

            “Still,” Koganei said, “we third-years had a good run of it, between last year’s Winter Cup victory and this year’s Interhigh.”

            “Not bad for a team that only started three years ago,” Teppei said.

            “Well if _someone_ hadn’t gone and gotten injured,” Hyuuga said, and the eyes behind his glasses were nostalgically scary, “maybe we could have been better than not bad.”

            Aida not so subtly kicked Hyuuga while elbowing him in the stomach.  She smiled at Teppei and said, “I’m glad to see that you’re healing well, Kiyoshi-kun.  Have they said yet when you’ll be ready to get back on the court?”

            “Not for another couple of months,” Teppei said, not bothering to hide his own disappointment with that fact.  “Still, I couldn’t miss being here today.”

            Aida glanced discreetly at Hyuuga, who coughed.

            “What’s happening today, senpai?” asked Fukuda-kun.  The younger students all looked perplexed, and Teppei wasn’t sure that he could blame them.  This was a first for Seirin, after all.

            The large clock overhead ran down, filling the gym with a buzzer sound.  The air in the gym seemed to freeze.  Number Two curled up into a ball, his ears pricking as his head lifted just as Kuroko turned to look at them, realization dawning in his eyes.

            “Time, isn’t it?” Mitobe said, and the first- and second-years all stilled.

            “Time,” Aida said, clapping her hands.  Teppei got up while Aida pulled the whistle from around her neck.  She turned to the other girl and dropped it around her neck, smiling.  “I leave them in your capable hands, Tachibana-chan.”

            “But -“ Tachibana stopped.  “But -“

            “You’ll be fine,” Aida said.  She glared balefully at the kids.  “And if any of them give you trouble, I’m not changing my phone number and you know how to use it.”

            Tachibana blushed and bowed.

            “They’re your problem now, Kuroko-kun,” Hyuuga said.  Teppei was pleased when Kuroko nodded firmly at them in response.  Beside him, Kagami and the other second years nodded as well, and Kagami’s hand landed in affectionate congratulations on the top of Kuroko’s head.

            The third years spread out so that they were in a line, and with Hyuuga, they all bowed slightly to their younger teammates.  “Thank you for playing with us.”

            Kuroko coughed and the younger years formed up opposite their seniors immediately.  They bowed together, the second years appreciably deeper than their juniors.  “Thank you for your guidance.”

            “Let’s go, team!”  Aida said, gesturing the third-years out.  Kiyoshi couldn’t stop himself from a quick look back as the juniors formed up around their new captain and coach.

            “You would make me miss the end of my last game, even if it was just practice,” Hyuuga said as he herded Teppei out the door.

            Teppei laughed. 

            Hyuuga scowled at him.  “What?”

            Nothing,” Teppei said, “I guess we’ll just have to play in college, too, then.”

            It wasn’t quite a promise.  There was still too much uncertainty for that - they had good grades, and skill with sports (even being injured, Teppei had received a few good offers) - but none of that guaranteed anything when they hadn’t even taken any entrance exams.

            Aida pushed her way between them, looping one arm through Hyuuga’s and placing her hand on his where it held his crutch.

            “If you don’t keep up your conditioning, I won’t forgive you,” she said.

            Hyuuga looked surprised for a moment.  Izuki, Mitobe, and Koganei shuffled up around them, and Hyuuga’s face softened.

            “Yeah,” he said, “I guess we’ll just have to play then, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> “The architecture of our future is not only unfinished; the scaffolding has hardly gone up.” ~ George Lamming
> 
> “In your life, at your side - you were right; I’ll say good night but it’s never goodbye.” ~ Vienna Teng


End file.
